WELCOME - BIENVENU - Abbé / Fr. GILLES BIO

 

Fr. Gilles A. Surprenant, Priest & Poustinik,
Associate of Madonna House Apostolate

Our Lady of Combermere

 

 

Abbé Gilles A. Surprenant, Prêtre et Poustinik,
Associé de Madonna House Apostolate

 

 Contact me by eMail - - - Contactez-moi par Courriel 

Archbishop's Résidence de l'Archevêque: 514-864-5600 ext. 618

 Blog:  https://fathergilles.blogspot.com/    

Blogue:  https://lafractiondupain.blogspot.com/

 

 Return to Home Page        Retour à la page d'Accueil

 

Welcome

Hello

I am very happy to welcome you to this website conceived for the glory of God and the good of the Church to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ by using such means of social communication.  Whether you are parishioners, patients in Hospital or their family and friends, engaged couples, Christians, religious or spiritual seekers, or other interested persons, or simply visiting; please know that you are most welcome!

Brief Autobiographical Sketch

I was recently reminded by a friend that it might be unwise to post on the Internet too much personal information; so I pulled my brief biography. If you would like to read it, send me a request by email, and once you have identified yourself; I will be happy to share it.
 

Bienvenue  

Allô – Je vous salue

Je suis heureux de vous accueillir en ce site web conçu pour la gloire de Dieu et le bien de l’Église pour proclamer la Bonne Nouvelle de Jésus Christ moyennant la communication sociale.  Que vous soyez paroissien(ne)s, patients en Hôpital ou leurs proches et amis, couples fiancés, chrétien(ne)s, des chercheurs religieux ou spirituels, ou autres personnes intéressées, ou simplement visiteurs, je vous assure que vous êtes très bienvenu !

 

Brève Autobiographie

Un ami me rappela récemment qu’il ne faut pas afficher sur l’Internet trop de détails personnels; alors j’ai enlevé ma brève biographie. Si vous aimeriez pouvoir la lire, écrivez-moi une demande par courriel et je serai heureux, une fois vous avoir identifié, de la partager. 

© 2004-2024 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
 © 2004-2024 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
  

Seminar / Workshop on God and Prayer - Marriage Prep Virtual Meeting via Zoom - November 6th, 2021

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“From This Day Forward”

Marriage Preparation Course 2021-2022

WORKSHOP 💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 MARRIAGE 💘 
💘 FAMILY  💘 PRAYER 💘 TRINITY 💘 SEMINAR 

👇 Link to Fr. Gilles' Power Point Presentation: 👇

👉  Workshop / Seminar on Prayer - November 6th, 2021 👈

INTRO of Father Gilles Surprenant 
by Bridget Bagshaw, Coordinator     9:00

Father Gilles Surprenant in Capernaum, Galilee, Palestine

----------------------------------------------------------------

We are created in the IMAGE and LIKENESS of GOD...

God is an infinite "fire" of life-giving love...

Our "soul" / "spirit" in our "center" is a flame of

God within us... God is infinite... so there is in us

a living, dynamic flame of the infinite....

That is why we are never content with just a taste...

something in us wants to...

eat the whole buffet... drink the whole bottle...

completely consume what we love and desire...

A man wants to love every woman in the world...

A woman wants to love every man in the world...

which is why pornography is so dangerous...

not because sex is bad... no, God made us beautiful...

in us is a flame of the infinite, life-giving love-fire of God...

To touch high tension electricity wires is to "fry" and die...

electric power goes through transformers to make it safe...

Human sexuality must also go through a transformer to be safe...

To look at human beauty from a distance is a torturing fire leading to depression and death...

Marriage is the "transformer" that makes our intimate loving safe and life-giving and it takes place in the presence of God. 

For a detailed exploration of this theme, go to…

“LIVING IN THE IMAGE and LIKENESS of GOD”

by Father Ron Rolheiser 

https://vimeo.com/showcase/8489527?page=3   

Father Ron Rolheiser’s website: https://ronrolheiser.com/ 

or see his books - contact:  Samia at   https://theologia.ca/ 

 💘 WORKSHOP ON PRAYER 💘 

"The Trinity" by Andrei Rublev - 1411 A.D.

Russian icon 56" x 45" 

PRAYER RESOURCES

👉 "Beginners' PAGE"

👉 Catholic Christian Tools  page

👉 👉 HOME - https://gillessurprenant.blogspot.com/      

----------------------------------------------------------------

This is a 3-Hour WORKSHOP / SEMINAR 

We'll have actual prayer experiences...

... discussion, couple time, Q&A, & breaks...

Last year, afte we prayed a little with couples, they wanted more. Well, this morning we will spend 3 hours exploring prayer. 

You will have opportunity to express any doubts and ask questions. Let this Workshop / Seminar be an adventure; I am your field guide.

Violence, troubles, dangers threaten humanity. Our human condition causes us to suffer insecurities, fears, doubts, and concerns for the future. We endure the faults of others and dislike admitting our own faults. 

The awesome truth is that our Creator God loves us without limits. God gives us freedom because He designed us for friendship love. It is only in learning to love our Maker back that we will be perfectly happy. We can please others but we cannot “make happy” anyone; it is unfair to even expect a human, other  than Jesus, to try to “make us happy”. 

We're off!

WORKSHOP 💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 MARRIAGE 💘 

💘 FAMILY  💘 PRAYER 💘 TRINITY 💘 SEMINAR 

Please join me as we begin with a PRAYER          9:02

OPENING PRAYER 

LED BY FR. GILLES

💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 PRAYER 💘

“Lord, I can’t pray properly. 
I’m weak; I’m human; 
I’m fragile. I’m easily distracted,
taken into thoughts of myself and the world.
But you, Lord, lead me past that.
Help me to pray truly as I am. 

Help me to focus on the Father, the Son,
and You, Holy Spirit,
so that my soul may be opened,
and I can receive the grace that is there
for everyone in prayer. Amen.” 

Prayer published by C. Alan Ames inspired by St. Teresa of Avila

“The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience.” By Christine Watkins, Queen of Peace Media, 2020. Sacramento CA

----------------------------------------------------------------

OUR METHODOLOGY :

ANDRAGOGICAL MODEL

METHOD: LIKE WINE TASTING 

or LIKE BEER TASTING

OUR OUTLINE - in 4 segments           9:03

 (1) The human prayer impulse (2) Praying in common 
(3) Praying alone (4) Praying as a couple

WITH GOD... WE ARE ALL BEGINNERS...
WE LEARN BEST TOGETHER...

----------------------------------------------------------------

Living Prayer 

By Anthony of Sourozh, Metropolitan. Living Prayer: The Pocket Library of Spiritual Wisdom. Foreword, p. 5. Darton, Longman & Todd LTD. Kindle Edition. 

Worship to me means a relationship. I used not to be a believer, then one day I discovered God and immediately he appeared to me to be the supreme value and the total meaning of life, but at the same time a person. I think that worship can mean nothing at all to someone for whom there is no object of worship. You cannot teach worship to someone who has not got a sense of the living God; you can teach him to act as if he believed, but it will not be the spontaneous attitude which is real worship. Therefore, as a foreword to this book on prayer, what I would like to convey is my certitude in the personal reality of a God with whom a relationship can be established. 

Then I would ask my reader to treat God as a neighbour, as someone, and value this knowledge in the same terms in which he values a relationship with a brother or a friend. This, I think, is essential. One of the reasons why communal worship or private prayer seem to be so dead or so conventional is that the act of worship, which takes place in the heart communing with God, is too often missing. Every expression, either verbal or in action, may help, but they are only expressions of what is essential, namely, a deep silence of communion. 

We all know in human relationships that love and friendship are deep when we can be silent with someone. As long as we need to talk in order to keep in touch, we can safely and sadly assume that the relationship is still superficial; and so, if we want to worship God, we must first of all learn to feel happy, being silent together with him. This is an easier thing to do than one might think at first; it needs a little time, some confidence and the courage to start. 

Once the Curé d’Ars, a French saint of the eighteenth century, asked an old peasant what he was doing sitting for hours in the church, seemingly not even praying; the peasant replied: ‘I look at him, he looks at me and we are happy together.’ That man had learned to speak to God without breaking the silence of intimacy by words. If we can do that we can use any form of worship. 

If we try to make worship itself out of the words we use, we will get desperately tired of those words, because unless they have the depth of silence, they are shallow and tiresome. But how inspiring words can be once they are backed by silence and are infused with the right spirit: ‘O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise’ (Ps 51:15). 

1* Adaptation of a talk given on the BBC in the ‘Ten to Eight’ programme first broadcast in 1965.

Anthony of Sourozh, Metropolitan. Living Prayer: The Pocket Library of Spiritual Wisdom (pp. 5-6). Darton, Longman & Todd LTD. Kindle Edition. 

For the remainder of the workshop / seminar, see the Power Point presentation :

👇 Link to Fr. Gilles' Power Point Presentation: 👇

👉  Workshop / Seminar on Prayer - November 6th, 2021 👈

----------------------------------------------------------------

PERSPECTIVE - Victor Frankl's discovery about who survived and who didn't in the Nazi concentration camps - "Man's Search for Meaning" 

= the freedom we have to "choose" our interior attitude to life 

----------------------------------------------------------------

GO TO CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN TOOLS PAGE

Link to MORE INSPIRATIONAL TEXTS 

----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Seminar / Workshop on God and Prayer - Marriage Prep Virtual Meeting via Zoom - Memorial of the Guardian Angels, October 2nd, 2021

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“From This Day Forward”

Marriage Preparation Course 2021-2022

WORKSHOP 💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 MARRIAGE 💘 
💘 FAMILY  💘 PRAYER 💘 TRINITY 💘 SEMINAR 

👇 Link to Fr. Gilles' Power Point Presentation: 👇

👉 https://1drv.ms/p/s!Amyv6OjUkKMfkAqNonkbVymKs3vQ?e=QLAZat 👈

INTRO of Father Gilles Surprenant 
by Bridget Bagshaw, Coordinator     9:00

Father Gilles Surprenant in Capernaum, Galilee, Palestine

----------------------------------------------------------------

We are created in the IMAGE and LIKENESS of GOD...

God is an infinite "fire" of life-giving love...

Our "soul" / "spirit" in our "center" is a flame of

God within us... God is infinite... so there is in us

a living, dynamic flame of the infinite....

That is why we are never content with just a taste...

something in us wants to...

eat the whole buffet... drink the whole bottle...

completely consume what we love and desire...

A man wants to love every woman in the world...

A woman wants to love every man in the world...

which is why pornography is so dangerous...

not because sex is bad... no, God made us beautiful...

in us is a flame of the infinite, life-giving love-fire of God...

To touch high tension electricity wires is to "fry" and die...

electric power goes through transformers to make it safe...

Human sexuality must also go through a transformer to be safe...

To look at human beauty from a distance is a torturing fire leading to depression and death...

Marriage is the "transformer" that makes our intimate loving safe and life-giving and it takes place in the presence of God. 

For a detailed exploration of this theme, go to…

“LIVING IN THE IMAGE and LIKENESS of GOD”

by Father Ron Rolheiser 

https://vimeo.com/showcase/8489527?page=3   

Father Ron Rolheiser’s website: https://ronrolheiser.com/ 

or see his books - contact:  Samia at   https://theologia.ca/ 

 💘 WORKSHOP ON PRAYER 💘 

"The Trinity" by Andrei Rublev - 1411 A.D.

Russian icon 56" x 45" 

PRAYER RESOURCES

👉 "Beginners' PAGE"

👉 Catholic Christian Tools  page

👉 👉 HOME - https://gillessurprenant.blogspot.com/      

----------------------------------------------------------------

This is a 3-Hour WORKSHOP / SEMINAR 

We'll have actual prayer experiences...

... discussion, couple time, Q&A, & breaks...

Last year, afte we prayed a little with couples, they wanted more. Well, this morning we will spend 3 hours exploring prayer. 

You will have opportunity to express any doubts and ask questions. Let this Workshop / Seminar be an adventure; I am your field guide.

Violence, troubles, dangers threaten humanity. Our human condition causes us to suffer insecurities, fears, doubts, and concerns for the future. We endure the faults of others and dislike admitting our own faults. 

The awesome truth is that our Creator God loves us without limits. God gives us freedom because He designed us for friendship love. It is only in learning to love our Maker back that we will be perfectly happy. We can please others but we cannot “make happy” anyone; it is unfair to even expect a human, other  than Jesus, to try to “make us happy”. 

We're off!

WORKSHOP 💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 MARRIAGE 💘 

💘 FAMILY  💘 PRAYER 💘 TRINITY 💘 SEMINAR 

Please join me as we begin with a PRAYER          9:02

OPENING PRAYER 

LED BY FR. GILLES

💘 GOD 💘 LIFE 💘 PRAYER 💘

“Lord, I can’t pray properly. 
I’m weak; I’m human; 
I’m fragile. I’m easily distracted,
taken into thoughts of myself and the world.
But you, Lord, lead me past that.
Help me to pray truly as I am. 

Help me to focus on the Father, the Son,
and You, Holy Spirit,
so that my soul may be opened,
and I can receive the grace that is there
for everyone in prayer. Amen.” 

Prayer published by C. Alan Ames inspired by St. Teresa of Avila

“The Warning: Testimonies and Prophecies of the Illumination of Conscience.” By Christine Watkins, Queen of Peace Media, 2020. Sacramento CA

----------------------------------------------------------------

OUR METHODOLOGY :

ANDRAGOGICAL MODEL

METHOD: LIKE WINE TASTING 

or LIKE BEER TASTING

OUR OUTLINE - in 4 segments           9:03

 (1) The human prayer impulse (2) Praying in common 
(3) Praying alone (4) Praying as a couple

WITH GOD... WE ARE ALL BEGINNERS...
WE LEARN BEST TOGETHER...

----------------------------------------------------------------

Living Prayer 

By Anthony of Sourozh, Metropolitan. Living Prayer: The Pocket Library of Spiritual Wisdom. Foreword, p. 5. Darton, Longman & Todd LTD. Kindle Edition. 

Worship to me means a relationship. I used not to be a believer, then one day I discovered God and immediately he appeared to me to be the supreme value and the total meaning of life, but at the same time a person. I think that worship can mean nothing at all to someone for whom there is no object of worship. You cannot teach worship to someone who has not got a sense of the living God; you can teach him to act as if he believed, but it will not be the spontaneous attitude which is real worship. Therefore, as a foreword to this book on prayer, what I would like to convey is my certitude in the personal reality of a God with whom a relationship can be established. 

Then I would ask my reader to treat God as a neighbour, as someone, and value this knowledge in the same terms in which he values a relationship with a brother or a friend. This, I think, is essential. One of the reasons why communal worship or private prayer seem to be so dead or so conventional is that the act of worship, which takes place in the heart communing with God, is too often missing. Every expression, either verbal or in action, may help, but they are only expressions of what is essential, namely, a deep silence of communion. 

We all know in human relationships that love and friendship are deep when we can be silent with someone. As long as we need to talk in order to keep in touch, we can safely and sadly assume that the relationship is still superficial; and so, if we want to worship God, we must first of all learn to feel happy, being silent together with him. This is an easier thing to do than one might think at first; it needs a little time, some confidence and the courage to start. 

Once the Curé d’Ars, a French saint of the eighteenth century, asked an old peasant what he was doing sitting for hours in the church, seemingly not even praying; the peasant replied: ‘I look at him, he looks at me and we are happy together.’ That man had learned to speak to God without breaking the silence of intimacy by words. If we can do that we can use any form of worship. 

If we try to make worship itself out of the words we use, we will get desperately tired of those words, because unless they have the depth of silence, they are shallow and tiresome. But how inspiring words can be once they are backed by silence and are infused with the right spirit: ‘O Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise’ (Ps 51:15). 

1* Adaptation of a talk given on the BBC in the ‘Ten to Eight’ programme first broadcast in 1965.

Anthony of Sourozh, Metropolitan. Living Prayer: The Pocket Library of Spiritual Wisdom (pp. 5-6). Darton, Longman & Todd LTD. Kindle Edition. 

For the remainder of the workshop / seminar, see the Power Point presentation :

https://fathergillespages.blogspot.com/2021/10/seminar-workshop-on-god-and-prayer.html

----------------------------------------------------------------

PERSPECTIVE - Victor Frankl's discovery about who survived and who didn't in the Nazi concentration camps - "Man's Search for Meaning" 

= the freedom we have to "choose" our interior attitude to life 

----------------------------------------------------------------

GO TO CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN TOOLS PAGE

Link to MORE INSPIRATIONAL TEXTS 

----------------------------------------------------------------

In the "New Covenant" made by our Creator God with humanity, as reported in Jeremiah 31:31-34, every human being can know God from within - because the Holy Spirit is revealing our Creator to all who are willing to know the Lord and trust in Him. We can still help each other along the way; so may you be pleased to find here a variety of helps to the life of faith in God through Jesus Christ. G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +